Alexis Musick

University of Miami

Alexis Musick, a second-year student at the University of Miami has displayed a continued commitment to civic engagement. For the past few years, Alexis has been instrumental in developing meaningful service experiences including the coordination of weekly opportunities for students to create arts and crafts with patients at the Ronald McDonald House. Alexis has also been involved with Camp Kesem and Student Government along with serving as a Site Leader three times for the University of Miami Alternative Breaks program. Additionally, Alexis has been influential in the creation of Nourish International at the University of Miami. This organization provides students the opportunity to partner with communities and support their efforts toward sustainable development.

Her accomplishments as a scholar and engaged citizen are extraordinary. Along with developing global initiatives to create effective mechanisms for lasting change, Alexis is dedicated to educating her peers on the social issues they are working with as they are personally progressing towards active citizenship. Alexis is an inspirational leader and model leader focused on solving some of the world's most pressing social issues.

Julio Frenk President
University of Miami

Personal Statement

As college students, every choice we make shapes the rest of our lives; every decision forever affects our future, for better or for worse, and defines the impact we'll have on society. With that idea in mind, I've done all that I can to make civic engagement an integral part of my college career. As a sophomore with more than 2,000 hours of lifetime service, I have found that to truly address the root causes of social issues, you must first understand its context and history.
Without this, service is only palliative - there's no real progression without finding ways to break down an issue's most pertinent form of systemic inequality. While I involve myself in the community as much as I can - including leadership positions in Camp Kesem and Student Government, and three Alternative Break trips, two of which I site led - by far my most expansive involvement is Nourish International. I founded and am currently a Chapter Leader for my University's chapter, and through this, I have coordinated a partnership between our students and AVODEC, a non-profit based in Jinotega, Nicaragua, to support the economic empowerment of a women's cooperative in the community. After a three-month consultative process, AVODEC and the cooperative decided to seek support for a pig farm project, as it aligned most with their strengths and opportunities. Over the summer, six of our students will be traveling to Jinotega to work with the women to construct a thirty-pig farm and facilitate training sessions in essential skills like financial management so that the cooperative can continue to be profitable and independent even after the project's completion.

Alexis Musick
Biology, Microbiology and Immunology, and Political Science: Class of 2018written 2016